When will the March weather let go of April? When I first checked my home weather station this morning at 7 AM 42 degrees stared back at me. My plan was to wait for the temperature to warm up while I tended our garage sale. This worked out pretty good with me ending our garage sale around 11 AM. The sun was up further as was the temperature. By the time I left on my ride at 12:54 at my house the temperature was 69 degrees but this was misleading because the wind had a distinct chill in it. My first inclination was short sleeve and long sleeve jerseys but thankfully I changed that to shorts, leg warmers, jerseys and windbreaker.

After the garage sale I checked Twitter and saw that one team riding the BP MS150 to Austin had already arrive at the first day stop in LaGrange at 10:30 or so. They said they averaged 27 mph and no stops. I wondered how the 13,000 bicyclists braved the cold.

On my last ride I went north and I generally repeated that route from Wednesday today except I changed the route going out of Kingwood. This was necessary so that I could back home before 3:30. All went well riding north and northwest with the breeze behind me. But when I rode off of Gene Campbell Road onto FM1314 I hit the headwind. I thought it sure was strong for 7 mph. It turned out to be 21 mph gusts along with the 7 mph wind. At the turn onto FM1314 my mileage was 17 leaving about 16 miles to home. My average speed for those last 16 miles could get above 15 mph. Fortunately I had built up enough speed prior to the slow down to keep my overall average speed at 15.3 mph for the 33.48 mile route. Riding in the shade reminded me of the wind chill and my hand and ear that were in the shade felt chilly.

After not riding for two days my April mileage goal looks doubtful but I still have 10 days left so I will keep at it. April miles total 437.53 and 1752.17 miles year to date. Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com data and maps.

Thursday I took my wife to the medical center and when we left home at 9 AM it was 77 degrees. By the time we got back home around 2 PM it had dropped to 58 degrees. It rained Thursday afternoon as the front moved through. Friday it took too long for the temperature to climb into the 60’s to ride.

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